Press Release

Opening Address by His Excellency Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister on India-Africa Forum Summit, Foreign Minister's Meeting  (New Delhi; April 7, 2008) 

Your Excellency, Hon’ble Mr. Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union Commission,

My dear colleagues, Hon’ble Foreign Ministers from Africa,

Ministers, Secretaries, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a privilege to welcome you to the Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the India Africa Forum Summit. I thank you for accepting my invitation. I hope you will all have an enjoyable and productive stay in our country.

Excellencies, we are gathered here to give a renewed thrust to our age-old partnership with the continent of Africa. We are grateful to all the governments of the continent for their overwhelming support in this direction. The India Africa Forum Summit is the beginning of a process to help brainstorm on how India can evolve its partnership with the countries of Africa to meet the common challenges that confront us in the 21st century. I, therefore, look forward with great eagerness to hear your views on how we can take our partnership forward.

A team of senior officers from India and Africa has been working assiduously over the past few months to assist us in finalizing the documents which we will consider and thereafter place before our leaders tomorrow for adoption at the historic meeting of the India-Africa Forum Summit.

It is agreed that this India-Africa Forum Summit will have two outcome documents: a Delhi Declaration and an Africa-India Framework for Cooperation.

The Delhi Declaration will be a political document and would cover issues of bilateral, regional and international interest to India and Africa, including our common positions on UN Reforms, climate change, WTO, international terrorism, etc.

The Framework for Cooperation will spell out agreed areas of cooperation. The areas on which we have agreed to focus include human resources and institutional capacity building, education, science & technology, agricultural productivity and food security, industrial growth, including small & medium enterprises and minerals, development of the health sector, development of infrastructure, ICT and the establishment of judicial systems with police and defence establishments under civilian control.

Africa has always enjoyed an important position in our foreign policy engagement. India and the countries of Africa share a history of colonial exploitation. Our cooperation in your post colonial reconstruction was found to be useful and also helped cement our close political relationship with the people and leaders of Africa. We have for some time now been in the process of providing a contemporary character to this relationship in the light of the changed international environment and our own evolving capabilities and resources.

India has over the years shared with Africa its developmental experiences and is committed to continue such cooperation in areas of its strength. India’s model of development through democracy, use of cost effective technologies and practical application of the knowledge sector have, we believe, been found to be of use to Africa. Africa is today the largest recipient of India’s technical assistance programme. We are extending and diversifying the programme to cater to the special needs of individual countries and group of nations. Projects such as the Pan African e-Network are an illustration of our genuine effort at sharing our progress in the knowledge sector and helping bridge the digital divide in Africa. Its pilot project is already functioning in Addis Ababa and the hub in Dakar awaits installation of equipment. Twenty-nine countries of Africa have so far joined this programme.

India has also extended concessional lines of credit of about 2.1 billion dollars to the countries of Africa, both bilaterally and through regional bodies. These have been used for developmental projects chosen by and in the interest of the recipient countries.

On its part, Africa has found merit in regional integration and seeks to first consolidate its regional economic communities. This process will have a significant impact not only in Africa but also internationally.

India’s engagement with African countries has, in the past, focused on bilateral engagement. In recent years, however, we have taken initiatives for establishing relationships with Africa’s regional economic communities. We have made good progress with COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS and EAC and expect to make similar progress with the others. Our regional cooperative programmes include feasibility studies, consultancies, joint projects in expansion of railway networks, development of regional capital and stock markets, food and health security, pilot projects on establishment of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and S&T parks, hydro-electric projects, ICT for development, etc.

We have also made serious efforts to expand our trade partnership with Africa. The ten India-Africa project partnership conclaves organized by India’s CII & EXIM Bank have been successful in boosting the trade and investment partnership. I had the pleasure of addressing the 10th conclave in New Delhi last month. We had the privilege to host over 600 delegates from more than 35 countries of the African continent. We also had the honour of having in our midst on that occasion the Vice Presidents of Tanzania and Ghana and 33 Ministers.

Indian companies have made robust investments in Africa running into several billion dollars in sectors ranging from horticulture and agriculture to power generation and mining. India’s trade with Africa has been increasing rapidly in recent years. We have signed Trade Agreements with 29 countries in Africa. Two-way trade has risen from around $5.5 billion dollars in 2001-02 to over 30 billion dollars in 2007-08, which represents an almost six-fold increase in as many years. Even so, the true potential is much greater and the spread and composition of the trade has to be substantially diversified.

At the Pan African level, we have stepped up our relations with the African Union which has acted as a facilitator for this India Africa Forum Summit.

I take this opportunity to renew India’s commitment to work in partnership with Africa.

Excellencies, let me also turn to some international issues that present us with common challenges. Climate Change is high on the agenda of the international community at this stage and will remain so for the coming months. It is imperative that strategies to address climate change do not add greater burden or impose further conditionalities on the development of developing countries. The principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities is important. I am glad that the Bali Conference has reaffirmed the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Long term convergence of per capita emissions of developed and developing countries is an important principle that deserves serious consideration in the context of the international climate change negotiations.

It is imperative that India and Africa work closely together, including in the NAM/G-77 framework, in the climate change negotiations. We must not allow ourselves to be divided.

Negotiations on the Doha Development Round of the WTO are also of great concern to countries like ours. It is essential that the developmental dimension of the Round be sustained. It is important to maintain and strengthen the engagement, solidarity and cooperation among our countries in this process. Agriculture remains the key. Any acceptable agreement must adequately protect the livelihood, food security and rural development concerns of developing countries. The developed world must bring about significant and effective reduction in trade distorting domestic support and subsidies. There can be no artificial deadlines. The promise of this being a Development Round must be fully realized.

The problem of terrorism is well known to Your Excellencies. We, in India have been fighting this menace for over two and a half decades virtually single-handedly. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there is now greater realization that this is an international problem that needs comprehensive cooperation among all countries. We firmly believe in zero tolerance against terrorism. We are concerned that the tentacles of this menace are reaching into Africa. We must strengthen our institutional cooperation against this menace.

Excellencies, reform of the United Nations, especially of the UN Security Council, has been on the agenda of the international community for long. It is important to ensure that the United Nations reflects contemporary reality. Our positions on this critical issue are virtually identical though we have a difference of opinion on how to approach this critical question. The support of Africa for reform and expansion of the UN Security Council, in both permanent and non-permanent categories, is critical. India has always been supportive of Africa’s representation in the permanent membership of an expanded UN Security Council. It is important that we work together to ensure that we move from the stage of discussions to negotiations on this vital issue. We must not allow ourselves to be led astray and be compelled to accept interim solution that would be to our detriment. I must also take this opportunity to thank the countries of Africa for their steadfast and consistent support for India’s membership on an expanded UN Security Council.

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, let me once again reiterate how delighted I am that you could accept our invitation for the India-Africa Forum Summit and this meeting of Foreign Ministers associated with that Summit. I look forward to hearing Your Excellencies on how best we can take forward the India-Africa partnership in all its dimensions: bilateral, regional and international.

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